As automation continues to build at a relentless pace across pretty much every business sector, the debate about the potential robotic future of recruiting is intensifying.

Who better to discuss this topic with than my guest this week, Jim Stroud. Jim has been a frontline corporate recruiter, is a pioneer of sourcing and a prodigious producer of content. He is currently VP Product Evangelist North America at ClickIQ and is a keen researcher into both the future of recruiting and the future of work.

In the interview we discuss:

• What recruiters will be doing in the future and why they will be doing it better than machines

• The importance of personal brand in recruiting

• How global privacy concerns are changing the nature of sourcing

• The critical importance of employer brand

• Why programmatic advertising is the future.

Jim also shares some stories about automation and human augmentation currently being seen in the workplace.

It's not often that you get to have a conversation with an actual robot, but that's exactly what I was able to do at TA Tech in Lisbon last week. TA Tech is an industry conference dedicated to the cutting edge of recruiting technology, and it certainly lived up to its billing this year.

As well as a robot and TNG the company behind it, I was also able to interview a number of the other conference speakers.

Almost everyone I speak to who works in talent acquisition clearly recognises the importance of a high-quality candidate experience. However, despite this overwhelming consensus, providing even an acceptable level of candidate experience is still a challenge for a lot of employers.

You can't improve something if you don't measure it and the lack of data employers have historically collected about their candidate experience is disappointing, to say the least. However, it finally looks like things are changing for the better.

My guest this week is Hayke Tjemmes from Dutch e-commerce giant Wehkamp. Wehkamp has spent the last 12 months building a framework that measures the right data for them to be able to continuously improve their candidate experience in an effective way.

In the interview we discuss:

• Wehkamp's recruiting challenges

• Why candidate experience is so important to them as a business

• The limits of using NPS in isolation

• Measuring candidate velocity

• Combining data points to generate actionable insights

• Feedback response rates from candidates at different stages of the process

• The strategy behind their new careers site

Hayke also shares some of the surprising insights their data has revealed and talks about their move towards predictive recruiting.

Regular listeners to the show will know how much I love strategic recruitment marketing that is based around effective storytelling. To me, it’s the future of talent acquisition and something every employer needs to be doing.

One company who I think does this brilliantly is Indeed, and I’m delighted to have Bryan Chaney their Director of Global Employer Branding as my guest this week. Bryan shares some brilliant insights into Indeed’s strategy and it really is a must listen for anyone working in talent acquisition.

In the interview we discuss:

• The unique recruiting challenges at Indeed

• Employer Branding versus Talent Branding

• Employer Brand strategy.

• Finding, curating and elevating stories that already exist and telling them in different ways.

As we all know recruiting is currently going through a massive period of evolution. Skill shortages, different ways of working and changes in the way we communicate are all contributing to the need for recruiting to be more strategic. But what does an effective recruiting strategy look like in 2019?

My guest this week is Mark Duebel, Global Technical Recruiter at Elastic Search. Elastic is facing some really interesting recruiting challenges which they are addressing in a very strategic way.

In the interview we discuss:

• The unique nature of Elastic's recruiting challenges

• The problems of marketing distributed jobs with no fixed location

• Dealing with a high level of inbound applications in a human way while keeping the bar high

• Elastic's "source code" culture

• Structured recruiting processes

• The role of automation and technology

Mark also talks us through the move from reactive to strategic recruiting and his thoughts on the future direction of talent acquisition at Elastic

In recent weeks we've had a few discussions on this show about the need for employers to find and nurture people with different mindsets from their existing norms. Digital transformation and exponential business change mean that companies need to be thinking very differently about talent.

One of the key global thought leaders helping employers do this is Harvard Business School, Professor Francesca Gino. Francesca focuses on the psychology that drives people's decisions at work and is the author of the best selling book "Rebel Talent".

The future of work remains a common discussion topic. Whenever we cover it on this show, I always like to look at things through a talent lens. In recent months I've had a series of guests from outside of the industry giving their perspective on talent and the future of work. To provide us with an insider view my guest this week is a veteran of the talent acquisition industry.

Peter Weddle is CEO of the TA Tech trade association and author of a recent book on the future called "Circa 2118 - What humans will do when the machines take over."

In the interview we discuss:

• Why there is such an unprecedented level of investment in talent acquisition technology

• The surprisingly short term impact of AI

• How we should be preparing for the future of work right now

• Eliminating tasks rather than eliminating jobs

• What should talent acquisition be focusing on

• The vital importance of building relationships

Peter also talks about the forthcoming TA Tech conference taking place in Lisbon in early May.

Most employers would agree that onboarding is a critical part of the hiring process. However, most employers would also agree that they don't give their onboarding experience the amount of focus their new employees deserve.

So what does excellent onboarding look like and how do employers achieve it? To help me answer these questions my guest this week is Daniel Chait, CEO and Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software.

In the interview we discuss:

The importance of onboarding both as part of the hiring process and in terms of its overall business impact

• Why onboarding receives less focus than other parts of the hiring process

• What great onboarding looks like

• The three phases of onboarding

• How technology can help

Daniel also shares his thoughts on the future of onboarding as well as examples of employers who are currently doing it well.

Remote working is being embraced by an ever growing number of employers. But are remote workers experiencing the same quality of communication and opportunity as their office-based colleagues? In many cases, the answer is a resounding no.

So what can be done to improve the situation? My guest this week is Wiktor Schmidt, CEO of Netguru. Netguru has adopted a "remote first" working policy that many other companies could learn from.

In the interview we discuss:

• Overcoming the challenges of recruiting digital professionals

• The importance of casual communication within a business

• How to ensure remote workers get the same communication experience as their office-based colleagues

• Using a unique culture to recruit and retain talent

Wiktor also shares his thoughts on digital transformation and the vital importance of an agile mindset.

Hiring, retention and development strategies for digital talent are big news at the moment as many employers are struggling to get the skills they need into their business.

Unsurprisingly Digital Transformation and its implications for talent was a big theme at the UNLEASH event held in London last month. While I was there, I was lucky enough to speak to two of the excellent speakers about their experiences of driving digital transformation and finding and developing digital talent for their organisations.

First up is Sebastian Kolberg the VP Change Management for Digital Transformation at Bayer. Sebastian shares some fascinating insights into the reality of driving digital transformation in a large and diverse organisation.

Topics discussed include:

• Bayer's Digital Transformation challenges

• The importance of a compelling story

• Digital talent strategies

• The benefits of small experiments

My second interview is with Angelika Inglsperger Group Head Talent Acquisition and Talent Management at Allianz. In our conversation, we discuss the details of some of the tactics Allianz is using to acquire and retain digital talent